GVA reacts to long-awaited Housing White Paper

Leading property adviser, GVA reacts to the Housing White Paper, following its release yesterday on Tuesday 7 February. The paper contains 30 initiatives based on 4 key principles:

Planning for the right homes in the right places;

Building homes faster;

Diversifying the market; and

Helping people now

Stephen Hollowood, Senior Director, Planning, Development and Regeneration at GVA comments: “We are generally pleased to see the proposals in the Housing White Paper to deliver more homes more quickly. Although some of the proposals would appear to have been recycled and are rather light in detail. The policy shift away from just home ownership to a more diverse approach to housing tenures including renting is also positive.

“We remain sceptical however whether these measures alone will meet the government’s target of 1 million homes by 2020. Limited housing land availability remains a critical constraint, with the need to flex the Green Belt in sustainable locations, particularly where well served by public transport, to supplement the pool of available developable land, a critical factor in addressing this concern. The government’s proposed measures will assist, but structural changes in the capacity of the house building industry and greater availability of construction skills will be paramount if the challenges set out within the White Paper are to be resolved in the long term.”